Battle of the Silver Holos!!

Hey guys,

Holy November Batman! Shall we kick this month off with something exciting?
So apparently I have been hoarding Silver Holos so I thought I would do a comparison just in case anyone was wondering where to put their money.

I'll be comparing
Julep - Rebel
Butter London - Dodgy Barnett
Nfu Oh - 61
Avon - Moonbeam

Sally Hansen Swatch Spam

Hey guys,

So I'm going to try to clear out some old back log so that these don't wind up getting buried for too long. So for a couple days bare with me with some old & musty back log posts so I can move on to new stuff! Yay!

This post is comprised of Christmas presents I got at Christmas (see what I mean when I say old and musty??) Each of these was given to me by one of my lovely co workers.

To see more click Read More

Maybelline - Twilight Rays

Hey guys,

So I won't lie, I have a tendency to be a total polish snob. Which makes zero sense seeing how I can be totally cheap, and also am not a fan of super high end polishes. Yet I totally turn up my nose at most drugstore brands like Revlon & Sally Hansen. Like I said it makes no sense, so anyways I always walk past the Maybelline Color Show display racks without a second thought, yet when my friend gave me this polish for Christmas I was so totally excited this colour is awesome. It's a gold/bronze glitter buried in a black base. It actually really reminded me of A England's Beauty Never Fails so I did a comparison swatch at the bottom.
This was two coats.

This is

Maybelline - Twilight Rays

OPI Swatch Mega Post

Hey Guys,

So I have a whack of swatch posts piling up and I really feel like it's keeping me from doing fun random stuff like nail art or just fun crazy manicures. So I'm going to do my first Swatch Mega posts, I'm not sure how often this will happen but it will be sure to happen on occasion.

Click Read More to see the Mega Post

Black Base VS White Base

Hey guys,

So when the Orly Feel the Vibe collection came out it came out with a Black polish (After Party) that while a gorgeous colour on it's own apparently doubles as a base for the neons in the collection. 

For some reason using a black base under Neons never occurred to me, it seemed like white was the choice that made sense so I wondered, what would the difference between using a black base and a white base be?

For my white base I used Orly Au Champagne and for my black base I used Orly After Party.

For my neons I used my Island Girl "Magic Mike" polishes.

This is the black base. This took 4 coats of neon over the 1 coat of black. (No topcoat)

This is 2 coats of neon over 1 coat of the white (no topcoat)

 

Verdict: Most of the colours worked okay over the black (clearly not the yellow) but overall I think it looks a bit better with the white base. Aside from the yellow there isn't a HUGE difference.

Nfu Oh - Aqua Base

Hey ladies,

So I'm going to lay it out right now. I may move to posting every second day just instead of trying (and apparently failing) to post every day.

Anyways so this post is about the Nfu Oh Aqua Base. Is it worth it? Or is another basecoat just as good??

So I did four variations.
Aqua Base
OPI Nail Envy Matte
OPI Natural Nail Basecoat
No Basecoat

Okay so when I paint my nails my normal routine is 1 coat OPI Nail Envy Matte, 1 coat OPI Natural Nail Basecoat, Polish, Top coat.

So it's pretty easy to see the difference.
First thing I noticed was that the Natural Nail Base coat was terrible. It didn't cover well at all even with two coats.
No base coat covered okay but nothing special and the no base coat idea makes me cringe even though I NEVER used to use a base coat ever. Funny how things change

OPI Nail Envy Matte worked really well actually I was impressed. It worked almost just as good as Aqua base.

Verdict: Yes it's worth it, the holo seems to cover the best on the Aquabase. BUT the Nail Envy matte works great in a pinch too.

Red Comparison

Okay so yesterday Chelsea told me I wasn't allowed to paint my nails red until Valentines Day. To which I said I'll paint them red every single day UNTIL Valentines Day when I will proceed to paint them BLACK like my heart.

So I decided to pull out all my reds (excluding glitters and crackles) and swatch them against each other.

Left to Right:

Essie Turning Heads Red, Essie Lacquered Up, Zoya Stella, China Glaze Restless, Zoya Colbie, OPI Pretty and Privileged, OPI Animalistic, China Glaze Moulin Rouge, OPI Wocka Wocka, OPI Ali's Big Break.

So I did this really quickly and considering it was coming off right away I didn't bother cleaning it up.

Thumb to Pinkie:

Z Colbie, CG Restless, Z Stella, E Lacquered Up, E Turning Heads Red.

First Thoughts: Restless is getting relegated to the Pinks pile.

The two Essie polishes are the only cremes of the group.

While the other 3 are shimmers with Restless being borderline glitter.

I really do love them all

This hand is obviously worse when it comes to being sloppy.

Thumb to Pinkie:

OPI Pretty and Privileged, OPI Animalistic, China Glaze Moulin Rouge, OPI Wocka Wocka, OPI Ali's Big Break.

First Thoughts: While P&P has been my #1 polish for a couple years (you can tell because it's starting to thicken up) WW may be the next in line to take the crown when P&P is no longer around.

I meant to take more pics of each nail but got a little carried away and took all the polish off before I remembered that but I'm sure better swatches will come in the future. (for Ali's Big Break, hop on over to Elf Nails)